Bullet point #2 ON Page #9 ď2. Beats the hell out of ramming Washington or Oregon.Ē Was funny! Good one Mike! _________________The Time a Person Spends Windsurfing is not Deducted from their Lifespan...
http://www.openocean.com

If you think about it, isobars, when he gets a bit cavalier and cute in his dialog, repeatedly makes the mistake of crapping on someone or something. It could be freestyle sailing and the mindset involved, or it could be those of us that happily zip around back and forth "mowing the lawn" as he likes to say. Criticism and disdain for the latter is arguably his favorite target because they interfere with his signature swell riding and expert high speed slashing all over the place. However, it's usually his idea of being clever and dismissive of others that gets him into trouble.

Will he turn over a new leaf and learn from his mistakes? Not a chance. Just look back at this thread. It wasn't too many pages ago that he got ugly and mixed it up with PeconicPuffin. The later confrontation with johnl just makes my point. isobars is always loaded and ready to go off. He can't help himself, and predictably, it's always the other guy at fault for "crapping in the punchbowl".

When I was 14 or 15, I was on holiday with family in Porto Pollo, Sardegna. I had two seasons of windsurfing under my belt at the time (one season on short boards, which equals to about 5 planing days total, realistically). I could not do a carving jibe - my attempts wobbled out dead downwind even after days of trying.

My mom (I know - how embarrassing!) pointed at the water and yelled something like "Just turn like that guy with the pink sail. It can't possibly be THAT difficult!"

Instead of copying Robbie's step gybe, I somehow figured out that my issue was committing to the carve. So I found a smooth spot where I could hit the curve at full speed without bouncing out and ended up learning the strap-to-strap first.

Everyone's different, and part of the fun is figuring things out, but I sure could have used some help back then._________________florian - ny22

Isoís,
For someone who learned late in life the benefits of weight training, Iím surprised you have not learned the benefits of light wind freestyle. You have complained of declining balance, so what better way to practice & maintain that balance. Light wind freestyle does wonders for your sail & body balance.

You donít need try a flakadoodle to do freestyle and not all freestyle moves are non-functional. Heck, practicing forward loops has greatly improved my catapult landings. I have learned great rig control while flying through the air so my mast never hits the nose of my board any more. What could be more functional than that Mr. Pad the Nose to Death?

Well I can't understand the 'lawn mowers' who use the sameboard over and over. Shouldn't any keen long serving addict have at least a dozen boards, both old and newer, in use? Ringing the changes can make a huge difference to the mood of the day.

Was out 'grass mowing' yesterday on the Cross 94 and was disgruntled with bothe sea (boring) and the cantankerous puffing and belching wind gods.

Took out the Bic Techno 133 with flicky light 7.0 sail today by way of contrast, and thoroughly enjoyed purposefully ploughing along and clopping over the chop (got to watch that nose doesn't bury itself) at constant lower 20m.p.h. ish speeds. It felt like purposefully piloting a bomber, as compared to a fidgety fighter.

Sat in the car afterwards moodily watching the offshore windmills, with flask of tea, pork pie, and choc bars to hand, wondering why it had been so much fun? I think it was because we don't expect so much from supposedly lower performing boards, so when they do 'turn it on' it comes as a pleasant surprise. (Mind you, my stencilled on mermaid ... she's really a Norwegian troll who drags unsuspecting sailors down to their doom, but with a figure like that who cares ....along with my beady eyed seagull stencilled mascot, might have had a hand in things.)

And yes, it can gybe, in a French don't really mind if I do kind of way!

Sat in the car afterwards moodily watching the offshore windmills, with flask of tea, pork pie, and choc bars to hand, wondering why it had been so much fun? I think it was because we don't expect so much from supposedly lower performing boards, so when they do 'turn it on' it comes as a pleasant surprise.

I sold my Techno 153 two years ago, and regret it. What that board gave away in weight and responsiveness it made up for in overall fun and ability to take a hit (except perhaps for the nose tip). A forgiving jiber, too.

The Technos responded well to mast track tuning. Slide your mast foot back 1/2" and the tendency to pearl improves a lot!_________________Michael
http://www.peconicpuffin.com

1. At typical B&J spots, about 90% of all windsurfers are what iso would call "hedonists". Ö Perhaps one out of ten windsurfers do something more interesting. A few ... go upwind and downwind at angles that the lawn mowers can only dream off, and passing them as if they were standing still. Their jibes are often outstanding. Some go for speed, and reach speeds that are twice as fast as what we see from the lawn mowers. Others always work on learning new things that seem pointless, and some of them sail more often and longer than anyone else, and apparently have a lot more fun. Ö My wife prefers to work on something new every time she is out. She often gets compliments about her sailing when she gets of the water.

2. Talented young ones like G-Master learn lots of new tricks in a couple of seasons.

3. The most inspiring windsurfers don't restrict themselves to one category.

4. I am mostly mowing the lawn when I am sailing,

5. I have dabbled enough in freestyle and racing/speed to appreciate the skills required and the fun it can be.

6. Some humans see the need to denigrate everything they don't understand.

7. ... someone who thinks there is only one way to jibe or get into foot straps.

Yeah, this is long. But anyone without the time to read it but with the time to lie about me or tell me how I must windsurf can just damned well sit there and look somewhere between ignorant and flat-out stupid.

1. Youíre describing my sailing to a T, relatively speaking, except that you omitted what I do while reaching. My speed and pointing angles donít match those of serious racers on serious race gear, of course, but then those folks donít sail where I sail, so many strangers and friends tell me my sailing really stands out. But so what? As a hedonist, at least in this unscored aspect of this sport, my only goal is to have fun, which includes improving relative to my own skills yesterday or 10 minutes ago. To that end, I have a mental list most days of what I want to do better. Iíve never seen anyone else do some of the things I do, but thatís irrelevant because my fun is based not on what everyone else can do, but on how much fun I can have.

People have asked me why I do some particular unique, seemingly pointless, things. In fact, every one of them has a specific purpose, including optimizing my fun. Whether Iím having more or less fun than the next guy, or than this mysterious G-guy or Whitey guy, is irrelevant and undeterminable, but Iíve seen VERY few Ö ≤2% Ö of WSers or any other athletes Iíve played with, with more endurance than mine, regardless of age until just my past couple of years. People have commented on it most of my life.

2. Which is it, guys? Sone of you say tricks donít require practice/dues/work (whatever you choose to call it), but you (and Brandt) are saying it takes months to learn some tricks. How about yíall get together, figure it out, and get back to us? Meantime, Iím going WSing (if we get any more wind this summer).

3. I donít sail to inspire; I sail to have fun. I WRITE to inspire, and to motivate those who are interested, but a) their interest is self-determined and b) some myopic people here proclaim it is boasting.

Screw the latter and their buzzkill. For some reason I canít understand, theyíre trying to suppress stoke that just might motivate some people to do more stuff without having to pay months or years of dues. They try to mandate freestyle, whereas I try to motivate an interest in other OPTIONS.

4. Iím glad you enjoy mowing the lawn. How does that make me a bad person because I choose to spice it up and tell others how accessible extra spice can be? Just think, rather than requiring months to years of hard work, sometimes pain and injury, more TOW than most working stiffs can manage, and lots of frustration, what I prefer doing can begin with noticeable success in one day, one SESSION, even one REACH, if desired. Certainly we get better at it with TOW, but itís not like, say, a loop, which either is or isnít.

5. And Iíve said or implied that it involves no skills or fun Ö where? (Hint: The answer is, ďnowhereĒ.) Do you not realize how silly it is to mindlessly echo othersí false claims, especially after they try and fail to back them up?

Besides, Iíve raced in many sports from track and field to WSing, and the latter has always interested me the least, for many reasons Iíve posted at length. IĎve even peeled out of a couple of the more boring of my 60 or 70 long distance cross country motorcycle races. Beating my head against a wall is for inherently important goals, not tricks, and I get to determine the difference between them, within my life.

6. Good God, guys, where do you come up with this $#!+? No one has yet shown us one post out of my last 20,000 which denigrate WSers or their WSing choices or skills. And whatís not to understand? Some people enjoy some stuff, others enjoy other stuff, in every aspect of our lives. Thank God we do, else weíd all be elbow to elbow at the best spot for whatever it is we all preferred, all be eating the same food, and all be drinking the same beer (except me, because beer Ö guess what Ö does not interest me).

7. Thatís just plain stupid, because itís so clearly and provably false. Of all the people here, no one more than I has railed agains that paradigm. My whole point, in countless posts, is that there are more than one way to do almost EVERY WSing thing, especially those you mention. The my-way-or-the-highway guys are those who oppose that concept almost daily, demanding that everyone always strap in FFF, use 30Ē lines, jibe the Puffinís way, sail only in straight lines on starboard just because thereís some dude coming at us on port from 200 yards away, use 90L boards in nuking winds, etc. For at least the 43rd time, those and my suggestions are OPTIONAL ALTERNATIVES to the canned solutions.

8. I have tried them ... and thereís only one ďsĒ in ďdislikeĒ.

9. Age, schmage. As Iíve said many times, Iíve never been interested in tricks in any of my sports (or in magic) in my entire life. Iím too hedonistic and too pragmatic to put in the time and effort they take. I donít know how to make it any clearer: THEY DO NOT INTEREST ME.

Example: The Hatchery was closed for a major pro freestyle event. The wind was great, the worldís best FSers showed up, and a great time was had by competitors and spectators alike at the Hatcheryís Kodak Point. I chose instead, to park in the cove well before dawn, before they closed the entrance. Why? Because that gave me solo access to some of the best but normally most crowded swell on the Columbia. No one gave a damn because the event was a hundred yards away, and I had one of my best Corridor days in my thousand days there so far because the wind and water were fantastic and the crowds just bent over and grabbed their ankles. I donít know who won their event, but I won mine.

10. TO ME -- and I am the sole judge of what I enjoy -- it is. Youíll just have to accept the fact that weíre not all alike. I enjoy organized sports (participating, not watching), but enjoy unstructured sports even more because I get to set my own pace, without whistles, timeouts, speed limits, etc.

Letís see if I have this straight. Dennis inquires about freestyle, I offer my PERSONAL opinions about it including compliments about its devotees, and people jump on my ass for pages because they donít like my choices of what I enjoy? Talk about hijacking a thread! JEEEZ, but this place would be SO much more useful, fun, and broadly interesting if you guys would stick to the subjects rather than making so many threads about me.

Last edited by isobars on Tue Jul 02, 2013 9:37 am; edited 1 time in total

Bullet point #2 ON Page #9 ď2. Beats the hell out of ramming Washington or Oregon.Ē Was funny! Good one Mike!

I can't take full credit for it. I know at least two guys who have done it: A physician named Tin and shaper John Doyle. Tin is legally blind, and John was probably trying to demonstrate that shortening a Doyle custom the hard way doesn't have to end a session.

Isoís,
For someone who learned late in life the benefits of weight training, Iím surprised you have not learned the benefits of light wind freestyle. You have complained of declining balance, so what better way to practice & maintain that balance. Light wind freestyle does wonders for your sail & body balance.

Your point is valid, but even if I wanted to try non-planing freestyle again, it would not be an option since my balance went to hell. Any non-fixed object significantly involved in my field of view sends my head reeling ... just one more reason I try to minimize long, drawn-out jibes. Just looking at the mail or at the sky while walking back to the house from the mailbox is impossible without staggering dramatically within one second, falling to the ground if I don't focus back on fixed objects instantly. If my sail passes through my field of vision, I topple.

BTW ... that Superslow weightlifting I mentioned is paying off hugely ... literally. People ask me almost every day how I work out, and I get a kick out of informing them that I lift weights for about an hour and a half every ... year. They think I'm kidding.

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